Exploring Washington DC and beyond

Warning: if you want a good meal in Oriental,NC…

As much as we enjoyed our visit to Oriental, North Carolina and the quaintness of the town, I was very disappointed in the restaurants. We went to lunch down by the waterfront twice while we were there and both restaurants were disappointments. The Oriental Harbor Deli is situated at the waterfront with a nice views of the sailboats in the harbor. Unfortunately, the food was horrendous. My mom’s salad had wilted lettuce, it was obviously from the bag. FG’s mac and cheese was directly from the Krafts Mac and Cheese box and FG ordered a chocolate mousse cake which was tasteless. When the server put the plate with the cake down she said “Sorry it looks messy but I had trouble getting it out of the box.” Who needs a cook when everything they served came from a box, bag or bottle!

Another day, we went to M & M’s retaurant which is just around the corner from the Deli. I had high hopes for a yummy lunch since I’d had lunch there a few years ago on a previous visit. I ordered the same Grilled Portobello Sandwich and a coke. Unfotunately, the portobello tasted a little “old” and there was something seriously wrong with the taste of the coke. At first, I thought it was too much “soda” in the fountain but it then seemed like a soapy taste. Yuck. I asked for another but it was just the same…

The third place we went to was the International House of Pancakes in New Bern. My mouth was watering for a wonderful order of German Pancakes ~ it’s the only thing I order when I go there. I never got a chance to taste the pancakes though. It took 5 minutes to be seated, not because it was busy but because NO ONE was at the hostess station. After being seated, we waited 15 minutes and no one ever came by to take our order. It was bizarre because there seemed to be a adequate number of staff but they were orbiting in all different directions. The final straw came when I got a peek into the kitchen and saw someone dressed like the manager (suit and tie) COOKING! Never a good sign. With that, we were out the door and heading back to the house.